Xi praises US-Chinese scholarship programme
April 21, 2013, 7:16 pm

The human society needs to foster talent through education says the Chinese president [BRICS5]

Chinese President Xi Jinping has hailed a scholarship programme at the Beijing-based Tsinghua University, urging deepened exchanges among learners across the world.

Xi made the remarks in a congratulatory letter to Sunday’s launch ceremony of Schwarzman Scholars programme jointly founded by Tsinghua University and Stephen Schwarzman, chairman of US investment and advisory firm Blackstone.

The $300 million scholarship offers a one-year study in China for postgraduates around the world to hone their international perspective and leadership quality, according to a statement on the official website of Tsinghua University.

“The human society needs to foster talents, pass on knowledge and explore the unknown through the means of education in order to understand and transform the world and create a better future for human beings,” Xi said in the letter.

US President Barack Obama also sent a congratulatory letter to the launch ceremony, calling for cooperation between nations and peoples to cope with challenges.

Among the donors to the programme are British Petroleum, Boeing, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Credit Suisse.

The Schwarzman Scholars programme will pay all expenses for 200 students each year from around the world for a one-year study in China.

According to The New York Times, the scholarship’s advisory board includes three former secretaries of state, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and Henry Kissinger; two former treasury secretaries, Robert Rubinand Henry Paulson Jr, former president Nicolas Sarkozy of France, and the former prime ministers of three countries, Tony Blair of Britain, Kevin Rudd of Australia and Brian Mulroney of Canada.

Mr Schwarzman was quoted as saying that the programme would try “forming an international network that can bridge differences between China and the West.”

57 founding members, many of them prominent US allies, will sign into creation the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on Monday, the first major global financial instrument independent from the Bretton Woods system.

Representatives of the countries will meet in Beijing on Monday to sign an agreement of the bank, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Thursday. All the five BRICS countries are also joining the new infrastructure investment bank.

The agreement on the $100 billion AIIB will then have to be ratified by the parliaments of the founding members, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said at a daily press briefing in Beijing.

The AIIB is also the first major multilateral development bank in a generation that provides an avenue for China to strengthen its presence in the world’s fastest-growing region.